For 50 years, Yoko Ono has been cast as a villainous vamp. People who grew up in the 1960s still think of her as a fame-crazed control freak, a Svengali who put a spell on John Lennon and pulled him into her dark orbit. Others considered her as little more than a groupie in wolf's clothing, a love-starved, peace-obsessed Beatles band-wrecker. The truth, however, is quite different and much more interesting, as evidenced first with the release of the films Imagine and Gimme Some Truth last year (here) and now with the documentary John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky (Eagle Rock Entertainment). The film is available on Blu-Ray here.
Directed by Michael Epstein and produced by Peter Worsley, the film is a candid and sensual look at John and Yoko in 1971, when songs for the Imagine album was being written, rehearsed and recorded at Ascot Studios on their Tittenhurst Park estate in Bracknell Forest, England. Part home movie, part historical document, the stunning 113-minute film features recent interviews with musicians and those who were there and never-before seen footage that jolts as much as it entertains.
Imagine was Lennon's second album after the Beatles' implosion in 1970 and features some of the finest work of his career. But the film also reveals a great deal about Yoko's personality, her art and poetry along with her collaboration with John. The film is loaded with revelations—from the recording of demos to to John dealing with a disturbed Vietnam war veteran who showed up unannounced at the estate's gate. While Yoko remains largely a blank canvas in the film, her art, taste and choices speak for her. If you're among those who believe Yoko soured Lennon on the Beatles, ruining a good thing, this film will radically change your thinking.
In truth, by 1969, Lennon had vastly outgrown the Beatles' formula for success. Weary of the band's hermetic studio life and the increasingly dense forest of instrumentation, technology and antique music-hall references, Lennon was searching for a stripped down approach to music-making. He sought a simpler statement that would express his frustration and feelings. Thanks to Yoko, his music during this solo period was liberated, imaginative and deeply poetic. Their messages of peace and protest were never cliche or even fully revealed; just crumbs so that listeners could complete their thoughts. Together, John and Yoko were minimalists, dadaists and provocative largely because they awakened our collective conscience.
John and Yoko's song messages such as "War Is Over (If You Want It)" and "Give Peace a Chance" were hefty messages. In this regard, John and Yoko took pop to a new level by combining music and socio-political outrage, frosting the hybrid with Yoko's poetry. In the film, we see how impossibly talented Lennon was, how open and revealing he was when he sang, how he became himself once he was free from the Beatles Inc. (no more thrusting his tongue below his lower lip and hamming for the camera) and how essential Yoko was to the process and finished product.
In many ways, Yoko was Lennon's muse, collaborator and music director, the person who kept him artistically honest and steered him away from the bag of pop tricks and reflexes he relied on in the preceding decade, before her arrival. As Dan Richter, an assistant to John and Yoko, says during the documentary about the song Imagine, "I hear Yoko because those are all her words. I love John, but those were her words."
As for Yoko's cultural scarlet letter, the film is a powerful witness for the defense without Yoko ever having to take the stand. You see her in action, you see how Lennon responds, you see her art and feel her positive presence. And throughout the film, she's largely deadpan and never explains a thing. Contrary to how she has been demonized, Yoko actually was quite humble and hardly narcissistic or manipulative. If anything, she comes across as the person who kept the music going, upped Lennon's game and helped him discover virtue in cryptic expression. If there was a downside to their partnership, it's that they smoked way too much, as evidenced in the film.
Like it or not, you've been listening to John and Yoko all these years following the Beatles breakup. They were working together so far in the future that it isn't until now that we have the perspective to fully understand and accept John's second chapter. In this film, we are witnesses to a love story and a creative synergy that lets us more fully understand Yoko's role and why their music remain so potent and timeless.
JazzWax clips: Here's the trailer...
Here's an excerpt...
And here's the Imagine trailer from last year...
